Forte
by Fastern
Summary: Request by katamariape, Fem!Chiro // I'd always discouraged the belief that being a girl meant you had to dress up and like boys. But, even now, I still have to deal with stereotypes...


_**A/N:** A delightful request by katamariape. I may or may not expand this into a twoshot, depending on how much progress I get on the two chaptered stories I'm working on at the moment._

_I imagine that a Fem!Chiro would be more insecure and willing to discuss her own limitations. She'd have to overcome different challenges then the male Chiro and it's more plausible to say that she'd be closer to Nova then Antauri or any other male member of the team._

_I took this opportunity to explore first-person perspective. I also just realized that this is the first time I've worked with a female protagonist since I was eleven years old and eagerly working on an original project..._

_I do not own "Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!" or this idea. The latter belongs to katamariape._

* * *

**Forte**

I thought monkeys were supposed to be cute, cuddly little creatures that happened to be extinct.

Boy, was I wrong.

'That's...pretty rockin',' I said, staring down at the destroyed target. Nova grinned at me and rubbed her gigantic fists together. No matter how incredibly cool she was, I'd hate to be on her bad side.

'Well, Chiro, give it a few years, and you'll be as rockin' as me!' exclaimed Nova.

She gave me a thumbs-up.

'Now you try,' she indicated another target.

'It's hopeless, you know I can't,' I shook my head.

'Go ahead,' said Nova. 'C'mon, you took it out last time. Let's see it again.'

I inhaled deeply. Two months of living alongside them. I still hadn't gotten used to the fact that I had all this power inside of me, and I was supposed to use it! To kill, of all things! (Though Gibson had _relentlessly_ explained that Formless weren't alive to begin with, so it didn't really count as killing something.) But still...

Nova nudged me. After assuming a fighting stance – one of the many variations she'd taught me – I put my hand towards it.

'Okay,' I chuckled. 'Monkey...Fu?'

Black and green energy emerged around my hand. It flickered and died.

'You gotta really mean it, Chiro!' said Nova. 'Like this! LADY TOMAHAWK!'

She leaped into the air and came down with the force of nuclear warheads! I was blown across the room as everything was swallowed by a golden light. But it evaporated quickly. Nova emerged, smiling in satisfaction at the destroyed target...and the one next to it...and the one next to that one...I staggered to my feet after coughing up some black smoke.

'I'm just no good at this fighting stuff!' I said. 'Everyone _wants_ me to fight, but I just can't do that! Maybe I better just go back to the Facility...'

'One of the reasons we took you in is because you hated it there!' pointed out Nova.

We headed out of the next. I returned to my default mode. The cute blue skirt and brown jacket that made up the uniform of the Facility. Its attractive appearance certainly didn't reflect what it was really like, and for a minute I questioned why I still had it.

'What if I hurt somebody?' I asked, rather rhetorically. 'What if I _can't_ learn to control this "Power Primate" thing Antauri keeps going on about?'

'Hey, look at him!' smiled Nova. 'How do you think he learned to control it so much? It took him years before he figured it out!'

'...Really?'

'Yeah,' said Nova. 'That's his strength: all that psychic stuff. It's like Gibson's strength is science junk, Otto's is mechanics, Sprx is piloting, and mine's combat. For the others, fighting is more like...a "side project" when compared to all of the other stuff they like to do. Know what? Antauri doesn't even _like_ to fight. You gotta find your forte, Chiro. You _are_ the leader around here.'

'I'm not much of a leader. Antauri makes all of the big decisions.'

'Antauri's around to guide you, like the rest of us are,' Nova assured me.

I ran my fingers through my tangled black hair. 'I feel so helpless. I don't want to be a _useless_ girl. You heard what Sprx said the other day...'

Nova suddenly stopped. We were right in front of the kitchen door, where I heard two or three of the others inside. Her expression was...livid, to put it mildly.

'Ignore Sprx,' she snapped. 'He doesn't know anything. Just because you're a girl, doesn't make you helpless. No one living in this robot thinks of you like that...even Sprx. He's just jealous, and you know it. Look at me! Do you think I'm weak? Do you see me complaining about who I am? You gotta accept and overcome the challenges people throw at you! You have to be a leader if this is going to work out!'

I didn't answer for a minute. 'You're right, of course.'

'Duh. We're girls. We're always right. Now let's go show those guys' who's the boss!'

I managed a laugh. For a monkey, she made more sense then half of my former female classmates. The ones that had thought more about boys and make-up then read books or dreamt about adventure. I'd been so _bound_ to the image girls were supposed to project in the Facility and all of Shuggazoom.

Now I was in a place where it didn't matter if you were a boy or a girl. (Unless you were leader, of course. But then again, I'd find it a little awkward, too.)

Looks like I had a few stereotypes to break.


End file.
